“All right. So come home.”
“Home?” I murmur, tilting my head in confusion. “I was in your place two days. And we knew it was temporary.”
“Temporary? You’re more optimistic than I am.” His doomed, deadpan delivery of the line earns a wry chuckle from me.
“Look, I think you’re a killer. A for-real one,” I whisper. “And I don’t want to stumble onto the wrong gun or the wrong notebook and then become a casualty of your lifestyle.”
“A casualty of my lifestyle,” he echoes. “That’s what scares you?” He licks his lips and exhales a slow breath. “I’d never let you become collateral damage, Arya.Never.And for the record, I’ll never lose control and hurt you, either.”
“It’s hard for me to trust,” I whisper.
“I know, but the only way I’ll earn your trust is if you test me. Like you’ve been doing, right? You’ve seen how I’ll react. If you’re a bad girl, I’ll treat you like one. But no matter what you say or do, I won’t lose control. That’s not the way I roll.”
I want to believe him. I almost need to, because I don’t want to stay at Eden’s and I don’t feel safe at home.
My lids drift closed, and I think about that moment when I taunted him to force me to have sex with him. Initially, I thought he let me go because he wasn’t that interested. But the next night he proved that wasn’t the case.
I open my eyes and stare into his. “You’re massive, Erik. You’re way stronger than anyone I’ve ever been with. If you punch me or do anything to threaten me, even once, I swear to God, I’ll kill you. I really will.”
“I will never become violent the way Sosa did.” His expression hardens. “This conversation makes me sorry he’s dead. I’d really like to beat him senseless again.”
“Did you kill Luis and his family’s men?”
His brows furrow. “No.”
“Do you know who did?”
He nods. “Don’t ask me anything else.”
My stomach twists in knots. His family has secrets. The same kind Luis’s had.
I move so my mouth is near his ear, and I can whisper. “Do you work for your uncle’s organization?”
He shakes his head.
“Did you? In the past?”
His brows rise and fall briefly, like a shrug. When his silence stretches on, I swallow against the thickening lump in my throat.
My voice is soft, but not hesitant. “Are you still for hire?”
He shakes his head. His mouth moves next to my ear and whispers. “My mom got in financial trouble with dangerous people. Uncle Joe helped her out of it. For a while, any time he needed something, I stepped up. Out of gratitude… and such.”
I exhale. “You’re still indebted? That’s how you ended up as my bodyguard?”
“No, all debts are paid. That’s why my uncle and your dad were going to pay me to watch you. Obviously, I won’t take the money now that we’re sleeping together.”
“Yeah, I guess that wouldn’t be right,” I say. “If he asked you to do something violent and illegal, would you do it?”
He shakes his head. “He wouldn’t. Doesn’t need to. And I wouldn’t volunteer. I’m done with that.”
A flood of relief washes over me. I can accept that he did terrible things in the past because he had to for his mom’s sake. Now though, it’s over. So, the man I’m getting involved with is not some killer-for-hire. He’s a student-athlete like me, who happens to have violent people in his past. Also like me.
My phone buzzes, making me jump. It’s another text from Eden, checking in and asking what I think the party’s signature cocktail should be.
“For God’s sake,” I say wearily.
His gaze moves to my phone’s screen, and he seems to read her text upside down.
